Doing the Things that Matter Most

I’m too busy.

How often have you heard someone say this? I have a couple of people in my life who are frequently say, “I’m so busy.” In my world this equates to saying that your days are dictated by the priorities of others. That’s a bad place to be. I know, because I’ve been there.

I recently listened to an interview with Debbie Millman, who is called “one of the most influential designers working today,” by Graphic Design USA. In this interview she said the following.

She added that this [I’m too busy] is the rationalization she most often hears people use as an excuse for why they can’t do something. Millman also calls it the most inauthentic and laziest of all rationalizations. This observation reminds me of something a mentor of mine likes to say.

“Every time we say yes to something, we’re saying no to something else.”

I find in my own life that this distills down to making time for the things I really want to do, the things that matter most to me. We only have so many heartbeats in a lifetime, right? There are fewer things that would bring me more regret than knowing that I didn’t make the time to do the things I really wanted to do. So I not only have to make the time, I also have to say “no” more often. CD Baby founder Derek Sivers wrote this on saying yes or no.